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The Typewriting Trainer Handbook

Håvard FrøilandAndreas Nicolai

Sebastian Gottfried


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Contents

1 Learning touch typing with Typewriting Trainer 7

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.1.1 What is Typewriting Trainer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.2 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2.1 Creating your first profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2.2 Picking a lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.2.3 Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.2.4 Review your progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.3 Training Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.3.1 Typewriting Trainer toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.3.1.1 Profile management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.3.1.2 Typewriting Trainer menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.3.1.3 Configuration dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.3.2 Course and lesson selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161.3.2.1 Switching courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.3.2.2 Unlocking lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.3.2.3 Training on a different keyboard layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4 Efficient training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4.1 Training techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4.1.1 Steady speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4.1.2 Accuracy is a king . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4.1.3 Correcting mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.4.2 Pausing the training session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.4.2.1 Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.4.2.2 Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.5 Tracking the learning progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.5.1 Speed and accuracy statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.5.1.1 Filter per lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.5.2 Errors statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20


2 Extending Typewriting Trainer 22

2.1 Creating courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.1.1 Course properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.1.2 Adding lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.1.2.1 Quality checks in the lesson text editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.2 Creating keyboard layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.1 Keyboard layout properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.2 Adding keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.2.2.1 Normal keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.2.2.1.1 Key characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.2.2.2 Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322.3 Custom Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322.4 Sharing your results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.4.1 Export/Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

3 Credits and License 35

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List of Tables

2.1 Modifier keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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Abstract

Typewriting Trainer is a program for learning to touch type. Typewriting Trainer providesyou with text to train on and adjusts to different levels depending on how good you are. Itdisplays which key to press next and the correct finger to use.


Chapter 1

Learning touch typing withTypewriting Trainer

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 What is Typewriting Trainer?

Typewriting Trainer is a program for learning to touch type.

Typewriting Trainer provides you with text to train on and adjusts to different levels dependingon how good you are. It shows your keyboard and indicates which key to press next and thecorrect finger to use.

Typewriting Trainer is a touch typing tutor aimed mostly at personal use. You learn typing withall fingers, step by step, without having to look down at the keyboard all the time to find theright keys which slows you down a lot.

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1.1.2 Features

In its current version, Typewriting Trainer has quite a number of features, such as:

• Ships with dozens different courses in many languages and a comfortable course editor

• Support for different keyboard layouts with the ability to use and edit user-defined layouts

• During your training session Typewriting Trainer collects comprehensive statistical informa-tion to help you or your teacher analyze your progress

There are many more features which will be discussed in the appropriate chapters of this manual.

1.2 Getting started

Here’s another screenshot of Typewriting Trainer in action, this time with a German keyboardand training lesson:

Even though learning touch typing with Typewriting Trainer and using the program should bevery simple we will look a bit closer at Typewriting Trainer in the following sections.

1.2.1 Creating your first profile

The first time you start Typewriting Trainer it will open a special screen helping you to createyour first profile. You can choose the name of your profile and the level of your typing skills.

TIPThe level you choose determines the general operation of Typewriting Trainer. In beginner modelessons are unlocked one by one after you pass them, for advanced typist all lessons are availableright from the beginning.

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NOTEThink about your choice, you won’t able to change the type of a profile later. But you can always createnew profiles to revisit this decision.

After pressing Start Training you will be taken to the home screen. This screen will also be thefirst screen visible when you run Typewriting Trainer the next time.

1.2.2 Picking a lesson

The home screen of Typewriting Trainer consists of a toolbar and the course selector. For moreinformation see Section 1.3.

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Typewriting Trainer will show you the first course available for your current keyboard layout.

You can switch between courses or choose custom lessons using the and buttonsin the top right part of the window.

NOTEOn some platforms, especially on Microsoft® Windows®, automatic keyboard layout detection is not

available. In that case you have to click on the button in the toolbar, select ConfigureKeyboard... submenu and choose the name of keyboard layout or some keyboard layout which issimilar to yours. If your keyboard is not included, you can define your own keyboard layout yourself,see Section 2.2.

Choose your lesson from the list on left of the window. You cannot choose the locked lessons

with as they are too difficult for your current skills. Pass lessons to unlock new ones. Thepreview of the selected lesson will be shown on the right of lessons list.

TIP

More information about the selected course can be shown and hidden again using button nextto the course title.

When you finished with the selection click on Start Training to go to the training TypewritingTrainer screen.

1.2.3 Training

The training window of Typewriting Trainer shows three main sections:

1. Some typing statistics in info boxes at the top

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2. The text you need to type

3. The keyboard visualization

NOTEVisibility of training screen parts can be configured using Typewriting Trainer configuration dialog.

Place your two index fingers on the two keys on your keyboard with the two little tactile markersnear the center of the middle character row. With that done your other fingers will find theirintended keys almost automatically. Your thumbs should rest above the space key, the only keyyou will ever use them for when touch typing. The other fingers should be placed on the threekeys adjacent to the marked keys on the center row. Keys for the same finger are grouped togetherthrough their color. Try to move your hands as little as possible and always try to return yourfingers to their resting positions after you have typed a character.

Start typing the text in the middle of the screen. The next key you have to press is always high-lighted on the keyboard visualization. While you type you may make mistakes and hit the wrongkey. In that case the characters will displayed in red and you have to hit Backspace as often asnecessary to erase the wrongly typed characters.

When you have successfully completed a line of text you need to press the Return to advance tothe next line.

TIPThe key used to advance to the next line can be changed using Typewriting Trainer configuration dialog

1.2.4 Review your progress

When you have completed a lesson Typewriting Trainer will switch to the score screen. It dis-plays your current training and lesson statistics and shows a graphical history of previous train-ing sessions.

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In the statistics dialog you can select to show a particular lesson or All Lessons. This is useful todistinguish between overall performance and skill in certain lessons.

If you feel ready for the next lesson press Next lesson button in the toolbar to continue with thenext lesson of the current course or Repeat lesson button to try your skills on the current lessonagain. The Next lesson button will be only available if you have passed the lesson.

If you want to switch to some other lesson or course press Return to Home Screen.

If you do not want to continue the training with Typewriting Trainer just close the applicationwindow.

1.3 Training Preparation

Pretty much everything in the Typewriting Trainer home screen should be self-explanatory. Thetop toolbar is meant to be the place where you can view and configure Typewriting Trainer set-tings. The course selector can be used to view the information about the courses and switchbetween them.

1.3.1 Typewriting Trainer toolbar

The toolbar of Typewriting Trainer houses the profile button at the left and the application menubutton at the right.

1.3.1.1 Profile management

The profile button with the name of your profile at the left of home screen toolbar can be used tomanage Typewriting Trainer profiles.

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You can review the settings of the existing profiles, delete them or create a new profile usingbutton.To switch to the review mode press Edit. To select a profile and return to the home screen pressUse Selected Profile .

1.3.1.2 Typewriting Trainer menu

Typewriting Trainer menu can be opened using button in the toolbar of the home screen.

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You can find a list of the menu items with their short descriptions below.

Full Screen Mode (Ctrl+Shift+F)Toggle full screen mode of Typewriting Trainer on and off

Course and Keyboard Layout Editor...

Open the Typewriting Trainer editor window

Configure Typewriting Trainer...

Display the Typewriting Trainer configuration dialog

Configure Shortcuts...

Configure the shortcuts you want to associate with some actions

Configure Keyboard...

A shortcut to the System Settings module to configure the keyboard settings. Useful toprepare for training on a different keyboard layout.

NOTEOn platforms lacking the support for detecting the keyboard layout automatically, especiallyMicrosoft® Windows®, this entry is replaced with a submenu to select Typewriting Trainer’s key-board layout manually.

Typewriting Trainer has the common KDE Help menu item, for more information read the sec-tion about the Help Menu of the KDE Fundamentals.

1.3.1.3 Configuration dialog

You can customize Typewriting Trainer quite a bit. The settings apply for all profiles globally.

Open the configuration dialog by pressing button at the right of the top toolbar of thehome screen then choosing Configure Typewriting Trainer....

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help:/fundamentals/ui.html#menus-help


Training Settings

In this dialog you can select the options that control tutor window appearance and howTypewriting Trainer behaves during training.

The Enforce correction of typing errors check box can be used to control whether typingerrors have to be corrected.You can control the visibility of statistics and keyboard panes during training using Showkeyboard and Show real-time statistics check boxes.The keystroke to go to the next line of training text can be chosen from two options, Returnor Space.The Lesson unlocking limits can be used to choose settings that control unlocking of higherlevel lessons. Typewriting Trainer checks the given limits at the end of each level and de-cides whether to unlock the next lesson. If the typing speed in characters per minute andcorrectness are both above or equal to the Lesson unlocking limits Typewriting Trainer willunlock the next higher level lesson.

Color Settings

In this dialog you can tweak the colors used by Typewriting Trainer.

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You can select the background color for each finger keys.

1.3.2 Course and lesson selection

Typewriting Trainer automatically detects your keyboard layout and shows only the courses op-timized for this layout.

NOTEOn some platforms, especially Windows®, keyboard layout auto-detection is not available. Use theapplication menu to select your keyboard layout manually.

1.3.2.1 Switching courses

Should there are more than one course available for your keyboard layout you can choose your

favorite one using and buttons to the right of the label with course name. If thereis only one course the buttons won’t be visible.

1.3.2.2 Unlocking lessons

If you have chosen I have no or only very little experience in machine typing during initial

profile creation you will find that some lessons are locked. These items are marked withicon and cannot be accessed until you pass the previous lessons.

NOTEThe settings to pass lessons can be changed using Typewriting Trainer configuration dialog.

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1.3.2.3 Training on a different keyboard layout

With Typewriting Trainer it is possible to use any keyboard layout for training. Just press thebuttons that are highlighted by the trainer, regardless to the labels on your physical keyboard.

Select Configure Keyboard... in the application menu to select a different keyboard layout. Afterthat Typewriting Trainer will adapt accordingly and present you its courses for this layout.

NOTEOn platforms without keyboard layout auto-detection, especially Microsoft® Windows®, you have firstconfigure your operating system to use the layout you want to train on and then select the same layoutin Typewriting Trainer via the application menu.

1.4 Efficient training

1.4.1 Training techniques

Hereafter, you can find some general advice about techniques for learning touch typing.

1.4.1.1 Steady speed

To be efficient when learning touch typing it is important not to simply try to type as fast aspossible but to keep a steady speed and find a natural rhythm to press the keys.

1.4.1.2 Accuracy is a king

The next important thing is to focus one’s attention on accuracy. Only if you mastered the useof the currently unlocked keys, which means you make only very few errors with them still,you will have chance in the following lessons with even more keys to handle. You will noticeyou become almost automatically master if you make only very little errors and you will saveprecious time if you don’t have to correct that many errors.

NOTEThat is also the reason why the default accuracy level to unlock the next lesson is at 98% while thespeed requirements are pretty moderate with just 180 characters per minute.

1.4.1.3 Correcting mistakes

If you made mistakes it’s important to correct them efficiently. Correcting single characters isalmost always slower than correcting the whole word. For the latter you have just to press Ctrl-Backspace, and retype the word. The mental overhead for this is very small. For the first youhave to first locate the your mistake, delete precisely to the location of the error, determine themissing part of the word re-type it. This requires way more concentration when retyping thewhole word.

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1.4.2 Pausing the training session

1.4.2.1 Automatically

If you open any dialog or switch to different application while you are in a training session thetraining is paused and the timer is stopped until you focus Typewriting Trainer window againand hit any key.

The training session will also be paused if there will be no activity by the user for five seconds.

1.4.2.2 Manually

You can pause the current session manually using button in the toolbar.

If you click on button in the toolbar Typewriting Trainer will pause the current sessionand show an overlay menu with some further actions.

1.5 Tracking the learning progress

After completing a lesson, you will not return immediately to the home screen. Instead a specialsummary and statistics screen is shown.

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1.5.1 Speed and accuracy statistics

1.5.1.1 Filter per lesson

With the help of the speed and accuracy statistics page you can review your learning progressand identify your weaknesses.

The statistics data can be filtered by lesson using drop down box next to the Over label. Thisfeature can be useful to control you progress in the current lesson and compare this progresswith the progress in other lessons.

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Additional data about the session can be viewed in overlays. If you hover the mouse cursor on apoint on the graph Typewriting Trainer will show the statistics of the corresponding session.

1.5.2 Errors statistics

The score screen can be switched to show errors rate for each key using drop down menu next tothe Show label.

In this mode, Typewriting Trainer shows a bar diagram of errors for each key in the last trainingsession.

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You can switch back to the lessons graph using the same drop down menu next to the Showlabel.If you have passed the lesson you may choose to start training on the next lesson right away bypressing Next lesson in the toolbar. Otherwise you can repeat the current lesson with Repeatlesson or return to the home screen with the remaining button.

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Chapter 2

Extending Typewriting Trainer

2.1 Creating courses

You can easily create your own training course using the built-in Typewriting Trainer course and

keyboard layout editor. Press button at the right of the home screen toolbar then chooseCourse and Keyboard Layout Editor.... You can choose open a course file or create an emptycourse from scratch or using an existing course as a template.

IMPORTANTYou cannot edit the built-in courses, even if you have the write access to the installation directory.

2.1.1 Course properties

The course properties can be chosen using Typewriting Trainer course creation wizard. To invoke

this wizard you should press button in the toolbar of Course and Keyboard Layout Editor

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window.The first page of creation Typewriting Trainer wizard allows you to choose the type of the data.Select Course and press Next.

The second page of wizard allows you to choose the title, the keyboard layout and the descriptionof the course.

The course title is important for the quick-select menu entry in the course list and for the statistics.

The description should be used to include information about the lesson author and source of

lesson data if any. This description can be shown by pressing button in the home screenof Typewriting Trainer.

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When you finished with entering appropriate values press Next.

Using the third page of wizard you can choose an other course as a template for your course.Select the course from the list and press Finish.

Typewriting Trainer will open the course editor window prepared to entering your course data.

2.1.2 Adding lessons

A course is an ordered set of lessons. To be efficient for learning touch typing the content of thecourse should meet a few requirements.

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Choose a meaningful name for the lesson

For each level you can specify the new characters/keys in the lesson. It is worth to includethe new characters in the lesson title. Click on a name label in the Lessons list and entersome meaningful name.

RATIONALEThe text you enter as a lesson title will be shown as lesson information text in the home screencourse list. It will be much easier for user to choose the lesson if it has a meaningful title.

The first lesson should cover the home keys

Usually a keyboard has two haptic markers for the keys on the second row belonging tothe index fingers. These two keys and the three adjacent keys outwards are the home keys.That’s asdfjkl; for the US keyboard layout.

RATIONALEThose eight keys are the start position of each finger. One must internalize the location of thesekeys first to successfully learn touch typing.

Introduce two new keys per lesson

The unlocking order of keys is not fixed, but usually keys are introduced in pairs belongingto the same finger on both hands. Make your way from the home keys to the ones furtheraway. Thus, the forth row should be introduced at last. Prefer keys for important charactersof your language, this may require to bend the introduction pattern a bit. For example inFrench accents are really important, this warrants a lesson early-on focusing on the accentkey alone.

RATIONALEIf more keys are introduced the trainee might get overwhelmed by the difficulty of the lesson andloose his motivation. Introduce keys for important keys first to able to form real words earlier.

Extra emphasis on the new keys

Make sure the characters belonging to the newly introduced keys are the most or at leastvery frequently used characters in the lesson text.

RATIONALEIf the trainee passes a lesson he should have mastered the new keys. This is only possible if thelesson contains a significant amount of the new characters.

Intersperse lessons with new keys with repetition lessons

Every two to three lessons add a repetition lesson without any new keys. These shouldhave an even character mix covering all already introduced characters.

RATIONALESuch lessons help to strengthen the acquired skills and provide a way to check the overall traininglevel. They are also better suited for repeated training to further improve one’s general typingskills.

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Dedicated lessons for capitalization

There should be several lessons focusing sorely on capitalization. Ideally capitalization isintroduced in multiple steps: At first only the left Shift key, then the right, then both andfollowed by one or more repetition lessons.

RATIONALEMastering capitalization is the most difficult part of learning touch typing. Therefore extra effortmust be spend on these lessons.

Cover the complete keyboard layout

This includes characters and symbols accessible via other modifiers than Shift. Ideallyevery character, number and symbol which is printed on a real keyboard should be covered.

RATIONALEThe more complete a course is the more the trainee can learn from it. It also keeps the courseinteresting for already advanced typists.

Use button to add new lesson to the course, button to remove selected lesson from

your course and / buttons to rearrange the lessons in the course.

IMPORTANTDelete lessons only with caution. Doing so may reset the unlocking progress of the users of the course.If you are planning to revise a course thoroughly it is usually better to use the existing course as a basefor a new one.

The content of the lesson can be edited using bottom right edit field. You can copy snippets ofthe text from your favorite text editor and paste them to this field.

Use the button to open a generic text file that will be loaded into the lesson text field.

The button can be used to wrap the lesson text. Typewriting Trainer editor wraps textsuch that every line of the lesson does not exceed the recommended 60 characters limit.

Let’s assume you want to add a new lesson. There are a few guidelines you may want to consider:

Give lessons a descriptive title

Name the new characters if there are any or otherwise state what the lesson is about.

RATIONALEGood titles make it easier to find the right course if one wants to train on something specific.

The lesson text should be composed out of real words and sentences

Optimally a lesson forms a comprehensible contiguous text on a freely chosen subject.

RATIONALETraining with real words and sentences is more effective than with arbitrary random charactercombinations since that is closer to real typing. And it is more fun.

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Avoid non-word character combinationsThis may impossible in the very first lessons where only a few characters are available, butas soon as possible only real words should be used. Never use misspelled words.

RATIONALERandom character combinations are hard to type and are seldom found in day-to-day typing.Misspelled words on the other hand are confusing and have even a negative learning value,since the trainee may memorize the wrong spelling.

Lesson text should be roughly 600 characters long

They may be longer, up to 1200 characters is okay, but shorter lessons should be avoided.This is especially true for repetition lessons.

RATIONALEKeeping within this range ensures that a untrained typist (~120 characters per minute) can finisha lesson in five to ten minutes. Longer lessons get frustrating, shorter ones are ineffective.

2.1.2.1 Quality checks in the lesson text editor

Above is a screenshot of the course editor with one of a problematic lesson loaded showing one ofthe built-in quality-assurance checks: if a lesson contains characters not available in that lesson,because they are not among the configured new characters of this lesson or any previous one,they are highlighted in red. There is also a check for too long lines resulting in a muted color forthe characters behind the allowed column.On the left side there is a list over all data files Typewriting Trainer knows about, built-in anduser-created alike. If the user selects a built-in resource the editor will degrade to a simple viewer,though. If the user selects a keyboard layout the program will adapt appropriately.

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2.2 Creating keyboard layouts

You can create your own keyboard layouts using built-in Typewriting Trainer editor. Usually it’sbest is to start with an existing layout close to the keyboard layout you want to create, and usethat as a base for own layout. That way you can avoid a lot of work.

2.2.1 Keyboard layout properties

The keyboard layout properties can be chosen using Typewriting Trainer keyboard layout cre-

ation wizard. To invoke this wizard you should press button in the toolbar of Course andKeyboard Layout Editor window.

The first page of creation Typewriting Trainer wizard allows you to choose the type of the data.Select Keyboard layout and press Next.

The second page of wizard allows you to choose the title and the name of the layout.

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The layout title is important for the quick-select menu entry in the layout list of TypewritingTrainer configuration menu and for the statistics.

The layout name will be used as a name of the layout by Typewriting Trainer internally.

Using the third page of wizard you can choose other layout as a template for your layout. Selectthe course from the list and press Finish.

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Typewriting Trainer will open the editor window prepared to entering your keyboard layoutdata.

2.2.2 Adding keys

Use Normal Key button to add new normal key or Special Key button to add new

special key (modifier keys, Space, Backspace, Tab, Caps Lock or Enter) to the layout. TheDelete button can be used to remove a selected key from your layout. The scale can be changedusing the slider at the left part of the editor toolbar.

The properties of individual keys can be edited using the bottom pane of the editor window.

2.2.2.1 Normal keys

It is easy to change the size or properties of a key.

Begin by clicking on the key you want to change. This selects the clicked key as the current key.

There are now 4 squares on the corners of the key. By dragging these squares, you will be ableto drag the key border to a new location. Dragging the whole key allows you to change the keyposition in the layout.

The numerical characteristics of the key geometry can also be changed using the Geometry sec-tion of the pane at the bottom of the editor window.

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The bottom pane can also be used to choose finger to press the key and switch the haptic markerfor the key.

2.2.2.1.1 Key characters

The characters that will be shown on a key can be changed using the Characters section of theeditor bottom pane.

You can add a character by pressing button. A selected character can be removed by

pressing button.

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You can also select the position of individual characters on the key by double-clicking in thePosition column.

2.2.2.2 Modifiers

There are several modifier keys that can be defined in Typewriting Trainer. They can be edited asnormal keys but it is helpful to know identifier of modifier key to use them as appropriate. Thetable of modifier keys identifiers is given below.

Modifier key Modifier id in Typewriting TrainerAlt altgrShift left_shift or right_shift

Table 2.1: Modifier keys

2.3 Custom Lessons

The custom lessons feature allows you to extend your training material in an easy way by choos-ing some arbitrary text.

The custom lessons are gathered in a special course, the Custom Lessons course, always availableright next to the normal built-in courses.

This special course mostly acts like any other, training and statistics gathering works as usual.Clicking on Create New Custom Lesson or the Edit button (for existing lessons) brings up astripped-down version of the normal lesson editor.

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Use button to open a generic text file that will be loaded into the lesson text field.

The button can be used to wrap the lesson text. Typewriting Trainer editor wraps textsuch that every line of the lesson does not exceed the recommended 60 characters limit.

The editor will highlight problematic sections of your lesson texts. Characters which can’t bytyped on your keyboard layout will be shown on a dark red, lines which are considered to be toolong use a gray font for the excess characters.

TIPAll custom lessons are stored per profile and keyboard layout individually. Use this to manage differentsets of lessons depending on the specific training situation.

2.4 Sharing your results

It is possible to save your courses and keyboard layouts in separate files outside of the localTypewriting Trainer database.

2.4.1 Export/Import

To export a course or keyboard layout in a separate file choose the corresponding item in the listat the left part of Course and Keyboard Layout Editor window and press Export button in thetoolbar.Typewriting Trainer will open a standard KDE save dialog. Description of this dialog in detailscan be found in the Opening and Saving Files chapter of the KDE Fundamentals.

You can choose the name and the location of the XML file to be saved.If you find it worth to share your files with over users, please send them with some descriptionto kde-edu mailing list.

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help:/fundamentals/files.html

mailto:[email protected]


IMPORTANTYour data should be licensed under GNU General Public License, version 2 to include them into thedefault Typewriting Trainer installation.

To import your data files into Typewriting Trainer press Import button in the toolbar and chooseXML file that was earlier exported using Typewriting Trainer.

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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html


Chapter 3

Credits and License

Typewriting Trainer

Typewriting Trainer, Copyright 1999-2007 by

• Håvard Frøiland [email protected]

• Andreas Nicolai andreas.nicolai@gmx DOT net

Typewriting Trainer, Copyright 2011-2012 by Sebastian Gottfried sebastiangottfried@web DOTde.Contributors:

• Frank Quotschalla, German keyboard and German training file and translation.

• Ernesto Hernández-Novich, Latin American keyboard

• João Miguel Neves, Portuguese keyboard

• Henri Girard, French keyboard

Special thanks to all the other (here not mentioned) contributors of keyboard and lesson files.

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

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